Comédia de Bastidores

Anglophone author most performed in the world, Alan Ayckbourn is a practitioner of “theatrical amusement” and a refined experimentalist, featuring the most unusual combinations in his plays. Bourgeois marriage, adultery, class conflicts and small obsessions are some of the themes of this Comédia de bastidores (Absurd Person Singular) (1972), a major example of that ambiguous tone that someone once described as “painfully funny”. Divided into three acts, each of which takes place on three successive (and not at all festive) Christmas Eves, Comédia de bastidores is a ruthless, yet tender, depiction of a certain social climbing, which has been seen by some as a premonition of the kind of society that would triumph during Margaret Thatcher's rule. The staging makes the rigorous score of Ayckbourn vibrate in the tense string between the almost frivolity and the blackness, from there resounding an immense loneliness. Comédia de bastidores marked the welcome return of Nuno Carinhas to Teatro Nacional de São João’s stage. On the occasion of its premiere in 2020, filmmaker Luís Porto recorded the play, now available in our virtual room.

Comédia de bastidores is now available in streaming. When purchasing the ticket, you must choose the specific day and time you want to watch the play. The ticket allows a single view by IP / device and only for the chosen session.